Earth-moving implement



Jan. 13, 1931. M. WOOLDRIDGE EARTH MOVING IMPLEMENT 2 sheets-she't 1 Filed March s,` 19'28 fllllllvlilll lrlllll Jan. 13, 1931. M, WOQLQRIDGE' 1,788,698

EARTH MOVING IMPLEMENT Filed March 5, 1928 2 Sheets-Slleel;4 2

Patented Jan. 13, 1931 PATENT oFFlcE.

.MACK WOOLDRIDGE, F LOB ANGELES, CALIFORNIA EARTH-HOVN G IMPLEMENT Application med March 8, 1928. Serial No. 258,761.

My invention relates to a mechanism whereby'the raising, lowering and adjusting of the scraper blade associated with back fillers, bulldozers, graders, Scrapers, snow plows, or the like may be accomplished in an expeditious and speed ing and lowering of said blade being accomvplished automatically, and without any effort whatever upon the part ofsaid opera- -16 tor, by the operation of the motor of the machine ofthe above noted character, eitherl when said machine is stationary and its motor in operation, or when said machine is moving by its own power.

It accordingly is an object of my invention to provide a novel form of raising and lowering mechanism in which a fluid pressure umana-preferably of the by-pass type, and operable by means of a suitable pump, actuated by the motorv of the machine, with which the mechanism is associated, coacts with a movable frame to raise and lower a scraper blade.

A further object of my invention is to.

provide a means whereby the scraper blade may be tilted at any desired angle to vary the inclination of the transverse cut, means being also provided to adjust the even depth of' cut of the blade, and further means for varying the angle of the blade with respect to the raising and lowering mechanism, it being also within the province of my invention to provide means for adjusting the dis- I tance the scraper blade extends on both sides of said mechanism, as well as a vertical variation ofthe height of said blade, insuring great flexibility of adjustment, suited to all conditions of said operations.

. Further objects and advantages of my invention, as will hereinafter more Jfully appear, I attain by the mechanism described in the specification and illustrated on thel drawings, forming a part of my application. Reference is had to the accompanying drawin s, in which ksimilar reference characters enote similar parts. In the drawings, l

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of. my invention applied to a caterpillar tractor,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of Fig. 1, showmanner, the rais-` ing the scraper blade in position for forward movement for an even cut on both sides and in front of the tractor,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical cross-sec'- ipnadetail view, taken on the line 3 3,

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary detail viewl of the by-pass Huid pressure means, parts being broken away to disclose the internal construction,

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary eleva tional view, partly in section, taken.onthe line 5 5, Fig. 1, parts being broken away and other parts omitted,

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary'top plan view on a somewhat reduced scale, of a scraper blade adjustably connected to the frame.l

Fig. 7 is a plan view illustrating how the scraper blade may be swung to eitherside to form a varying angle with the tractor,

. Fig. 8 is a fragmentary vertical cross-seetional detail view showin 'the vertical adjustability of the scraper lade,

Fi 9 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectiona view of one form of fluid pressure pump operated by the motor of the tractor, `:t'or actuating the piston of the pressure means shown in Fig. 4, and

Fig.'10 is a front elevational view of Fig.

l, but showing how the scraper blade may be l adjusted so as to 'make a transverse angular cut.

Describing my invention more in detail, it is my purpose to provide a novel form of scraper blade, raising, lowering and adjusting mechanism, whereby great flexibility of operation of said blade is obtained, suitable to all road conditions encountered, and all manner of cuts may be had, the raising and lowering of said blade being accomplished automatically and without any e'ort whatever upon the part of the operator.

In'the drawings, 2 denotes generally a machine, such as a back-filler, grader, scraper, snow plow, bull dozer, or the like, the machine being shown as `a tractor lof the caterpillar type, but which in practice may be any preferred. ISince said machine enters only into the combination with my invention it need not be further described or illustrated.

Associated with the tractor 2, 1s a frame 4,

comprising a rear member or cross bar' 6,

having portions 8 by whichthe cross bar 6 is permanently and rigidly secured to the side frame members 10, the front of which is conjoined by cross bar 14. The rear cross bar 6 is pivotally secured to the clevis 16, which is connected to the drawbar of such tractor 2, by securing means 18.

Secured to the front bar 14 in any suitable manner are the inclined bars 20, which bars move withv the front bar 14 when the frame 4 is moved in the manner presently to be described, and with said front bar 14, and the inclined bars 20 are associated the means for connecting the frame 4 to thescraper blade 22, and the adjusting means, also presently to be described.

The blade connecting means, designated generally by the reference numeral 24, comprises a triangular member (see Figs. 2, 6 and7) made up of inclined angle irons 26, preferably inte al with the pivot late 28, adapted to be plvoted either to the ront bar 14, by means of the hole 30 and detachable pivot pin 32, or in a series of erforations 34 adapted to align with simi ar erforations 36 contained in the open-sided ox-like extension 38 secured to and projecting forwardly from the front bar 14. See more particularly Figs. 2, 3, 6 and 7.

Slidable on the extension 38'is the complementary box-like structure 40, preferably integral with the late 28- and the cross bar 42 (Figs. 2, 6 and 7) connecting the inclined angle iron 26, the said box-like structure 40 l having extensions 42 (Fi s. 3 and 8) pivoted as at 44 to suitable curve ribs 46, associated in any preferred manner with the blade 22, for a purpose presently to be described.

The triangular adjusting means 24, with the box-like structure 40 is oscillatable on or slidable on the stationary box-like structure 38, after the pivot pins 32 are removed, so that the larc or angle of movement of the blade 22 may be adjusted. This may be done by merely removing the pin 32 and inserting same in the other holes 34 and 36 for any arc desired. When the front pr 'it pin 32 (Fig. 3) is removed, the means 24 may be swung to the right or left on the rear pivot 32, the bars 20 being provided with perforations 48 to receive stop pins so that the distance of angular movement of the blade 22 kmay be limited as desired.

The lfront pivot pin 32 is used only in lbull dozing, where straight ahead movement of the blade 22 is desired, said pin functioning as a locking means.

To provide for cutting unequal distances on both sides of the machine 2, the front pin or bolt 32 (Fig. 3) is removed and inserted in the other holes as just described, but for a greater angular movement said means 24 is pulled forward until the proper holes 34 andv 36, for the cut desired, are in ali nment, af'ter which the rear pin 32 isinserte in said holes. See Figs. 6 and 7.

The scraper blade 22 may in practice take any form desired, but is preferably curved as shown more articularly in Figs. 3 and 8 and is provided) with a cutting element 50 associated with. the body of said blade as desired.

It is sometimes desirable to adjust the blade 22 vertically. For this purpose the perforated side bars 52 and uprights 54 are provided, the bars 52 being pivoted at 56 (Figs. 3 and 8) to the ribs 46 of the blade 22. By removing the pins 58 and inserting them in the holes or perforations 60, the vertical adjustments of the blade 22 may be accomplished as desired.

It will of course be understood that the various parts may be welded together, riveted or secured in any manner desired, and still remain within the province of my invention.

The means for raising and lowering of the blade 28 will now be described. The lifting of the heavy frame 4 by hand would ofcourse entail quite an eort upon the part of the operator. To do this automatically, I provide the luid pressure by-pass means 62 (see Figs. 1 and 4), and the pump 64, which may be of the conventional geared piston type, shown in Fig. 9, operated by the power of the machine and controlled b the -valve 66 (Fig. 9) which valve is opera le by the rod 68 and hand lever 70, operable at the drivers seat 72. Since this specific structure is conventional and forms no part of my invencylinder 80 is suitably mounted on one end" y upon a support 84 secured as desired onfthe side bar l0 and movable with frame`4, a bracing means 86 (Figs. 1 and 2) being preferably provided to assist in holding said support in position.

As shown in Fig. 5, a stationary raine work 88, composed of u rights 90 and a base bar 92, is secured to t e tractor structure by means of the pins 94, said uprights being secured in braces 96, t ese features, of course being in positionby means of the crosschains are of unequal lengths,

being bolted, welded Yor otherwise secured in position..

Each of the uprights 90 isprovided with a bearing 98 in which the lifting or operating rod 100 is adapted. to be oscillated, and one end of said rod has associated therewith the arm 102, slotted or cut away as at 104 to hold the chain 106, the lower end of which is secured to the front bar 14. The slot '104 permits the vertical adjustment of said chain.

The other end of the operating rod 100 is provided with an arm 108, (Fig. 1) which is adjustably -connected by any suitable means to the piston rod80. The crank arm 110 is provided with a slot 104 similarly as is its companion arm 102, the slots being adapted to receive the links of chain connections 106, which may be inset` in the respective slots so that the lengths of the respective chain connections will be the same or different. When different, vthat is, when the obviously a tilting'qo the frame and its associated blade to one side or the other will be produced,

it being noted that the frame at the rear is pivotally attached to the tractor to of such tilting. y

As seen in Figs. 1 and 5, a guiding means in the shape of `a pair of plates 112, secured by any means to the side bars 10, is propermit vided to provide an even up and down movey frame,

frame whereby each end of said blade mayV ment of the frame 4.

While I have thus described my invention with great particularity, it will be clear that the same may be modified throughout a wide range. I accordingly do not propose to be limited struction shown'and described, but reserve the right in practice 'to make any and all modifications thereof that fall within the scope 0I the appended claims.

I claim as m invention:

1. The combination with a vmachine of the class described including 'a movable frame and a scraper blade connected thereto,4 a cylinder mounted at one end on said frame, a piston operable in said cylinder, frame op# erating means connected to said piston, hydraulic means, operable by said machine for causing said piston to .raise and lower said and means on the fore part of said be selectively tilted.

2.' The combination with a machine of the -name to` this specification.

to the exact details of conraising and lowering' 'ecial use in connection e class described, comprising a movable frame, a scraper blade connected to said frame, a stationary frame work, an oscillatable member mounted on one -erid ofsaid frame work, fluid pressure by-pass means for oscillatingsaid member so'that said frame may be raised and lowered, and means on the fore part vof said frame whereby each end .of said blade may be selectively tilted.

In testimony whereof I have signed my MACK WOOLDBIDGE.

class described havinga movable ramemda scraper blade carried by the frame, of a stationary framework on said machine, a bell..y crank on the fore part of and at one side of said framework, frame lifting and tilting means connected to one arm of said bell crank and said frame, and hydraulic means for operating said bell crank to raise yand lower said frame.

3. The combination with a machine of the' movable velements on a movable frame and izo 

